November 3
The Ram's Belly
Sun Position
The Sun sits in Scorpius near -16° declination. In the Northern Hemisphere, afternoon light is visibly retreating; Southern Hemisphere days are growing longer and warmer.
Sky Highlight
The South Taurid shower continues, peaking broadly through the first two weeks of November. On clear, dark nights with no interference, observers may count a slow fireball or two per hour. The radiant in Taurus is well up by late evening from either hemisphere.
Deep Sky Object
M77 (NGC 1068), Seyfert galaxy in Cetus, about 47 million light-years away. One of the closest and best-studied active galactic nuclei in the sky; its compact, unusually luminous core was key to establishing the class of Seyfert galaxies in the early 20th century. Visible in mid-sized telescopes as a round glow with a bright nucleus. Accessible from both hemispheres in November evenings.
Featured Star
Botein (δ Arietis) is an orange giant 168 light-years away, spectral class K2III, a leisurely evolved star cooler and redder than the Sun. It marks the belly of Aries the Ram, and in ancient Babylonian and Arab lunar calendars it served as a boundary marker for the heavens.
Around This Date
- November 3, 1957Sputnik 2 launched Laika into orbit, making her the first living creature to circle the Earth.
- November 3, 1973NASA launched Mariner 10, the first spacecraft to use a gravitational slingshot maneuver, which carried it past Venus and on to Mercury.
Botein sits low in the Ram's belly, a mellow orange star that has been marking calendar boundaries for three thousand years.